The Hibernation is over!

Since it has finally warmed up around here ( a couple days last week were in the 80s!!!! Doesn’t bode well for the summer temps :( ) Mike and I have crawled out from under the thermal sleeping bag and made attempts at accomplishing a few more things before we pack it all up and head back home. Starting in late February I began working with the Az-ETA Mingechavir branch giving a few presentations/workshops and general support for their work. To my surprise and happiness the turnout at the weekly meetings has been great, about 20-30 every week. I’m so impressed that so many teachers, who are generally over-worked and severely underpaid, take the time to come to a one hour meeting every week for their professional development. This branch just got a room at the local Teacher’s Institution, where we have are meetings and there are books and other resources.
On March first I was invited to lovely Yevlax for a training there. It was another successful event. I brought teachers from Ganja and Mingechavir and there were already 25 or more teachers from Yevlax there. Some of the Yevlax teachers are trying desperately to start their own Az-ETA branch but are being met with some strong opposition from their local education department and city government. Hopefully they will persevere!
March 8th was International Women's Day. It was a national socialist holiday in the Soviet Union that Azerbaijan has decided to keep. Its kind of like Mother's Day except its an official holiday so there is no work and you don't have to be a mother to enjoy it. Originally it was intended to celebrate the achievments of women in the Soviet Union and during the Revolution. Now in Azerbaijan men are supposed to give the women flowers and gifts and supposedly the husbands give the women a break from the housework for a day. That is NOT to say that the men do it instead, they just let the women leave the dirty dishes for the next day. Oh well. I received many congratulations from teachers, students and friends. Mike even gave me some flowers. They were beautiful mostly because he actually found some real ones instead of the usual plastic!

On the 7th Aiching, a volunteer in Goranboy, invited a bunch of volunteers and me to a big Women's Day celebration at one of the two schools in town. There were many speeches about women and mothers and Azerbaijan. Many children recited poems and there was singing and dancing as well. The kids were cute, especially the little ones who forgot their lines and the teacher her helped a trio of girls with some songs by singing along with her head turned to the back of the stage. I also got in on the festivities and read some information about some famous women- Amelia Earhardt, Marie Curie and Margaret Thatcher. It was cute and I always like to see Aiching and cheer her up since she has to live in a pretty sad place.

Then the following weekend Mike and I were invited to Qebele, in the northern foothills, for an Az-ETA youth conference. I was also chaperoning/assisting one of the groups from Ganja. So we rented a bus and loaded up with kids at 7 AM in Ganja, then drove to Mingechavir picked up Mike and some Mingechavir students and their teacher and then headed up to Qebele. I was anticipating only about 40 or 50 students but it was in fact a huge event with students from all over Azerbaijan- probably around 300 in all. Then we sat through 4 hours of student presenations about Novruz- the big spring festival. Everyone got a little restless, including us. We managed to entertain ourselves with the food. We first were served tea and then later cups of yellow liquid were handed out. We weren't sure what they were and I was about to try a sip but the smell stopped me. Then when the platters of rice emerged later on I realized that they were cups of oil to put on the rice! Woops! Ah yes- two years here and I still have much, much to learn. Although exhausting being around so many teenagers, the day was really nice. We were both really happy to see our friend Vafa who was the teacher who organized it.

For the past two months or so I have been working on organizing all the books that I've been left in charge of. I've also purchased some more to add to the collection. Naile, my friend who works at the organization where my office is, helped me process all the new books and organize the old ones. What I thought would be a two day task ended up taking much longer. More because of my anal retentive behavior than anything else. So we decided as a celebration of our hard work, to have a little opening ceremony-red ribbon and all. Since it was right around Novruz we combined it with a Novruz party. We browsed the books, jumped over a candle, swallowed fire, told fortunes, and ate cookies that Mike and I had made the night before. It was a small but appropriate opening. The picture shows what my office looks like, in case you were wondering.

This is only a taste of the fun that's been happening over the past few weeks. Will hopefully get to those posts soon. Since its after Novruz the country is in a flurry of activity, which will last probably until July, when it gets too hot to move anymore so I'm taking advantage of all the motivation and the decent temperatures. Started a TOEFL class today and will be working with the Ganja Az-ETA branch on Saturdays and of course I'm still working on my thesis. Its been a bit more of a challenge since my computer up and died on me- not even 3 years old!!! I actually have a proposal that I like-we'll see if my advisor likes it as well! More to come soon! Inshallah!